Omen

You said it was an omen
when a cardinal
crossed my path
or when
a groundhog
paused

to look
when I spoke
hello
a word of greeting
that every living thing knows
and answers to
and responds
with a pause
and a breathing mark
like some scholar
reading Greek
with a diacritic
signalling him
to roughen his tone
for his master
ten thousand thousand
generations
since anybody even spoke
like that
or conspired

to resurrect
the greasy whispers
of Jim Morrison

or one's fellow inmates
from the cave

once having
surfaced
to the light.